BFT
London
JK Rowling has revealed the one character she regrets having killed off in the Harry Potter series - and it’s not Dumbledore.
In a new short essay uploaded to the Pottermore website, the Scottish author admitted her guilt for killing the minor character of Florean Fortescue.
The owner of the Diagon Alley ice cream parlour, Florean first meets the boy wizard in the third novel The Prisoner Of Azkaban, has a mention in the fifth book, The Order Of The Phoenix, as he was “dragged off” and killed by Voldemort’s servants, the Death Eaters.
“I seemed to have him kidnapped and killed for no good reason. He is not the first wizard whom Voldemort murdered because he knew too much (or too little), but he is the only one I feel guilty about, because it was all my fault,” JK wrote.
The novelist said she had originally planned for Florean to be the “conduit for clues” to help Harry in his search for the deathly hallows in the final book, but found a better character to take that role.
“The problem was that when I came to write the key parts of Deathly Hallows I decided that Phineas Nigellus Black was a much more satisfactory means of conveying clues,” she continued.
The essay is the latest addition to the Pottermore Christmas series, in which new pieces of writing and surprises are being uploaded to the site over 12 days as an “advent” release, revealed once Potter fans have solved a riddle.
This is not the first time JK has used Pottermore to speak out about characters from the novels. Other revelations through the website include the backstory to Dolores Umbridge, the loathed temporary headmistress of Hogwarts.
Rowling has been working on the script for Potter spin-off film Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.